A Tisket, A Tasket, Make a Supercool Basket!Copycatting Country Living Magazine

by Karen on August 12, 2012

My niece snorted at me the other day when I showed her this latest DIY of mine. Not because she didn’t like the end result, but because I told her I copied it from one I saw and loved in Country Living Magazine.

“Did you ever think you’d see the day when you’d be looking at Country Living Magazine?”

She has a point. But I don’t think I’ve changed. I think Country Living Magazine has. Gone are the days of chintz and dancing roosters on the kitchen counter. There’s a certain country charm to every single one of the pages.

Without, you know … conjuring up images of Hee Haw.

I’d have to say it’s my all time favourite magazine right now. House Beautiful and Architectural Digest has some stunning design but … a lot of times I can’t imagine living in those rooms. Country Living however … I could move right in, throw a blanket on the couch and watch a movie. They do country chic. Elegant country decorating that always looks modern and up to date. Not corny or cheesy.

So when I saw this basket in the June issue I knew I had to make it. Firstly because I loved it and secondly because it looked ridiculously easy to make.

I started out making a version that involved steam bending wood. Then I decided if I was going to share this DIY with all of you … chances are only one of you would ever consider making anything you needed to steam bend wood with a homemade steam bending contraption. So I nixed that idea.

(if you’re that one person, let me know … we’ll talk)

Instead I found a way to make a reasonable facsimile out of everyday objects you can find quite easily. I found all of these materials in my potting shed. But most of you will have to buy/scrounge/find a few of the materials.

You’ll need:

1 peach basket (local produce or grocery stores will have and gladly give you one. Farmers markets try to hold onto theirs but I’m sure you could persuade someone to sell you one for a couple of dollars.)

1, 12″ round cork mat I bought mine at the hardware store for $5, but they’re also available in craft stores. Dollarama in Canada has 9″ ones for $2)

A long length of jute twine, string or bailing twine. (again … available in hardware, craft or Dollar stores)

I N S T R U C T I O N S

1. Carefully pull your peach basket apart. All you’ll be using are the round, thin pieces of wood that go around the top and bottom of the basket. Using your wire snips or a screwdriver pull the staples holding it together out. Be careful to not break the long length of thin wood.

2. Cut a piece of hardware cloth to fit whatever sized piece of cork you have. For a 12″ piece of cork your hardware cloth will have to be 38″ to wrap around it, by however high you want your basket. I made mine pretty big at 15″ high.

3. When cutting your hardware cloth make sure you leave one of the long ends with the pointy bits still in tact. You’ll be bending these over to act as support for the cork at the bottom of your basket. Just bend them at a 90 ° angle with your thumb.

4. Once you’ve bent the ends down, roll your hardware cloth into a tube and tie the edges together with a piece of string or jute. (I started off using green coated wire thinking you wouldn’t be able to see it but changed my design midway through the basket to something where you would see the wire. So I took it off and replaced it with jute string)

5. Stand your cylinder on the ground and place your cork bottom inside.

6. Make sure your tines are pressed up tight against the bottom.

7. Hot glue the tines to the cork. If you need to, shove something in between the hardware cloth and the cork bottom to keep it pushed up tight against the tines while you’re gluing it. I’ve just used a bit of mulch.

8. Cut the ends of your peach basket strips so they’re straight.

9. Hot glue the strips along the bottom and top of your cylinder. Use clamps if you need to to hold the strips in place.

10. Place a final wood strip around the inside of the top of the basket and hot glue it.

11. To finish the top edge of the basket (cause all that hot glue and wood is messy looking) just run a length of twine or string along the edge and hot glue it. If your twine isn’t thick enough to cover the whole edge, just double it up and twist it.

12. Cut your thin pieces of wood or paint sticks to fit the height of your basket. In my case, 15″. Dab hot glue on each end …

… and stick them to the side of your basket. Like so.

13. Hot glue your final piece of peach basket wood to the sides of your basket, leaving enough for the handle. Just eyeball whatever looks good for the length of your handle.

14. Since the peach basket wood is so thin, reinforce the handle by gluing another one or two pieces of peach basket wood to the underside of the handle.

15. Screw a ½ screw on the inside of the basket to hold the handle in place, so you aren’t relying on the powers of hot glue alone.

And admire.

I’m already planning on making another one of these. Mainly because this one turned out a LOT bigger than I thought it would. This one I’m going to use inside in the winter beside the fireplace for kindling and rolled up paper.

In the summer it’s on the porch with magazines in it.

The smaller one, I plan on making this weekend will be for gathering vegetables from the garden.

The difference between my basket and the one in Country Living, is the one in the magazine has “feet”. But I decided I liked the look of the basket with just the two strips of wood along the sides where the handles run (as opposed to the 4 the basket from the magazine has). To make feet for the basket to stand on I’d need to add 2 more strips of wood to the outside of the basket. I didn’t wanna. So I didn’t.

What I actually like better about my basket is it already looks old and worn. That comes from using an old, worn peach basket. Keep that in mind when you’re picking your peach basket out. If it’s old and worn that’s how your basket will look. If it’s new and clean, that’s how your basket will look.

Country Living. Snort. Not only am I looking at it, I’ve subscribed to it. In more ways than one.

It`s really nice! I would like to follow you wherever you will go-hihi
but I`ve got one problem….
in our whole country you can only get rectangular baskets. I have never ever seen a basked like yours:o(
and now??? any ideas???

Country Living is my favorite magazine, and I don’t really consider my design style very ‘country’. As I was reading the supply list, I was thinking “wait, I think I have a peach basket AND hardware cloth in my shed!!! AND I have the day off tomorrow…Bwahahahaha! Thanks!

It looks great and all… but if I managed to get my hands on one of the gorgeous peach baskets, I think I’d just call it a day! In the UK they definitely don’t deliver peaches in those. Not tacky, bulky, plasticky, or wasteful enough.

It looks FAB! And great that you can make it in different sizes.
I’m amazed at how you see something in a magazine and then set about making it, lol! I used to do that with knitted stuff, but it’s so long now I think I’ve forgotten how to knit.
Mmmmm, maybe I should try knitting a basket?

I saw the same picture, and had the same thought to make one myself. Instead of a peach basket; however, I used 1 inch wide half-round reed as my inner and outer rims, and sea grass as the filler. I used an oval base, but I will try a round base on the next one. I too am using it as a magazine basket.

I love it, I’m inspired to try and make a variation on yours, since there are no peach baskets where I live. I’m actually a big fan of Southern Accent magazine, too, which is stuffed with fabulous cool and glam country beauty with a southern twist. There’s a bit of that Gone-with-the-Wind white-gloved debutante lingering within the covers but, like British aristocracy or Manhattan society, I enjoy a vicarious trip through a different perspective now and then. Thanks for this great post<:} Mia

Funny thing about Country Living magazine, I just started flipping through it when I go to the hair salon. And I know I hadn’t bothered with it in years for the same ‘dancing rooster’ reason. (Even though I love rooster and chicken themed stuff in my kitchen.) Like the basket idea for the garden.

I’m with you on Country Living! Magazines adapt to what the trend is and that one is no exception,although I am a modern lover I still think that magazine has a lot of beauty to offer!http://www.dawnajonesdesign.com/

Hey Karen! Awesome job on the basket – – LOVE IT! I’ve got an idea for another project for you… how about making the same kind of basket but taller that will hold rolls of wrapping paper? Are you up for the challenge??

This is great! And now I might also have to get a subscription to Country Living. I feel the same about Architectural digest, cool looking rooms but not very homey. Now I’ve just got to find a peach basket!

Love this! I desperately need an umbrella stand for my mudroom, and despite lots of ideas nothing seemed right. I think this will work really well! Oh, and a suggestion in case the wire on the bottom scratches your floor you could always add another round of cork to make a wire-cork sandwich.

That’s why we read your blog: you figure out all the stupid stuff for us! Couldn’t help noticing you have no weeds in your cracks….
(Haha, just put that in here to try to get your site high-jacked again!)

You are truly amazing! So many people look at a picture and say, “I could so make that”, but you actually do – successfully! I love this basket. I would just love to have a peach basket. I can’t imagine my local grocery store would have one let alone give it away, but don’t know till I try.

Have you ever heard of Garden and Gun Magazine? It’s not at all what it sounds like… features art and culture and cool stuff from the southern half of the United States… BUT…. would seem right up your alley.http://gardenandgun.com/
I don’t even need or want a wire basket, but your post is so dang inspiring I might need to try it just to see if I can do it!
Thanks for brightening my work day….

I just happened to notice apple baskets in my daughter’s garage a couple of weeks ago and asked here where they came from because usually you have to kill someone to get one. Her daughters grand parents on the other side retired from being a college professors to owning an orchard and they give her a basket of apples every year so……I know where I can get one. I don’t remember what we were talking about but a while back I told you that I know a woman who makes wire cages for a living so I can get the wire from her. Gosh, I might have to actually buy the cork. As for the HeeHaw in Country Living, I’m having a chuckle at a girl who has chickens in her back yard having an aversion to HeeHaw. HaHaHa He Haw! My favorite magazine now that they are all uptown is Romantic Living. It changed a lot, getting away from that awful Barbie Pink. Now why would Barbie Pink bother me when I’m buried under a mountain of Barbie-itis. School starts tomorrow and I get my house back. Yeeehaw!

Karen, I am inspired by your barrel with the fern on it and the broom – I have all of those and never thought to put them together on my front porch!
I saw a picture in a log cabin mag yesterday with a small woodstove on the porch with a mum in it and thought – I have one of those in the storage closet in the basement and never thought to put it out on the porch either! Is there not an original idea in my head, or what!?

You made me giggle because I too never thought something like Country Living Magazine would be my favorite either! for added strength on the bottom, you could glue another cork trivet on, sandwiching the tines between the two?

Awesome, nice work. I feel like we all get caught up in “instructions” but in reality, although it may not be exactly what you are mimicking, you can kinda guess on a lot of things and even if it looks different, it becomes an original!

Heather – You could, but I wanted to use things I already had around the house, plus I wanted it to look authentically old. You wouldn’t get that look with an embroidery hoop. I’m not sure … do they make embroidery hoops that are 12″ around? They might. That’s some big embroidery, LOL! It would work for a newer looking basket though. ~ karen

Thanks Beth. Feel free to pass that sentiment on to anyone and every you know. Even people you don’t know would be O.K. I mean, they might think you’re a bit of a whack job, but … that doesn’t really affect me so I’m O.K. with it. ~ karen!

I am a bit late to the table here but–To steam wood –not in your tub either—get a piece of galvanized PIPE bigger and longer than your wood.

Get the end pieces threaded. You can buy pre-made pieces this way or the store can do it for you if you need a really odd size–just make sure that your wood will fit in it both width and length wise. Get the SCREW ON CAPS for the ends.

Wet your wood–and add SOME water to the tube when you place the wood in there. Not too much!

Place your pipe on your grill or your fire or I would think one of the small burners like Karen used for the Maple Syrup project would do–and if it is too short prop up one end and then cook until you feel the wood is pretty steamed up. Make sure you are extremely CAREFUL when you open this and you should let it cool down some. Eye protection and body/hand protection needed here–just in case! Then remove your wood and when you determine that it is properly soggy to bend use some thing in the same shape and size to bend it around–or use a pattern–and tie it; clamp it; stake it–to let DRY and take he curve.

I think this is from the Southern series done back in the 70’s of “old timey mountain ways” which titles I am sure I will remember oh about 3 in the AM. They tell you how to make ‘shine; baskets; weave–I am sure a quick Google would find these for you. Several volumes and all were as I remember amazing.

I love the basket!! I am going to try this for sure! I was looking for a way to make a Garden Hod but this is a close second! If you ever want to try a garden Hod for veggies in the garden I would love to see those plans too. Just a hint;)

Hah! I was actually given the Lee Valley garden hod this winter when I spoke at a Seedy Saturday event. So I’m not sure I’ll be making one. It’s probably be easy enough. I’d start with bamboo, chicken wire or hardware cloth … Uh oh. ~ karen!